1998 Toyota Sienna LE from North America - Comments

10th Feb 2002, 11:28

Isn't the Sienna built in America? So are the Camry, Accord, Corolla, 626, Avalon, etc.? Obviously Toyota's got it wrong with this car (some other fellow's had sludge problems), but to say that "foreign" (you really mean "Japanese", don't you?) is junk is pretty well ignorant and blindly patriotic (stress on blindly) -- you'd better try to count how many good reviews cars from Chrysler, GM, and Ford exist in these surveys (talking solely of American products) vs. bad Japanese reviews and keep living in your insular world. Gees, what percentage of Caravans and Voyagers get good reviews here from within America? Almost zilch!

10th Feb 2002, 11:40

Well I have to totally disagree about Toyotas being unreliable pieces of trash. I owned a 85 Ranger and a 86 Mustang and had nothing but problems with them. Prior to that, I owned a 76 and a 79 Aspen. Better cars engine wise, but they too were prone to problems. I decided that my next vehicle would probably be a 4Runner and ended up buying one 4 years ago. It's a 93 and aside from usual maintenance costs, has not had a problem at all. It's getting close to 10 years old and looks and drives like brand new.

I was so impressed with it that I decided to replace my Ranger with a Toyota pick-up and purchased a 89 SR5 3 years ago. Now this one had some minor front-end maintenance issues, but I was a bit foolish to not get it checked out before I bought it so I can't really quibble about that. It's fixed now and aside from a bit of rust looks and drives like brand new as well.

Now I do have to agree that some Toyota vehicles are problematic as I was thinking of buying either a Camry or a Sienna for the wife. After reading some of the comments on this site I was pretty surprised at the extent of the negative feedback of those 2 vehicles. I finally decided on a 97 4Runner. My other 2 Toyotas are standard which the wife can't seem to learn how to drive in case you're wondering why I would buy another 4Runner. A bit pricier then what I wanted to spend, but so far it too has been problem free.

Where I work it's very inconvenient to have an unreliable vehicle. Early morning start and no chance of making up time if you have to drop off a vehicle at a garage. Since buying my first Toyota, this problem has been a non-issue.

16th Feb 2004, 21:19

American cars compared to Japanese? Please, you don't know how many flaws there are in American cars. Chrysler and Dodge are unreliable cars. Followed by the other crappy makers of Ford, Chevy, Pontiac, etc. Recently, GM or some manufacturer had a huge recall involving some million cars and SUVs.

I'm not saying that Japanese cars are flawless. But don't forget that Toyota's luxury division, Lexus had won numerous J.D. Power & Associates awards for their reliability and recently Toyota and Lexus models won nine or something awards. Half were Toyota the other half was Lexus.

I've had many Toyota's in the past and they weren't perfect, but they're reliable.

17th Feb 2004, 16:12

How much do you want to bet? How can you explain the GM Recall? The recent crash testing of the Ford Explorer Trac getting 2 stars out of 5. Ford's incident with the Firestone tires and the Explorer.

I also speak from experience. My sister-in-law drove a 1996 Grand Caravan. It made VERY weird sounds. I don't know why, but I've heard very weird sounds from the Town&Country and the Caravan.

American cars suck...they're the real lemons. Too many problems with American cars.

People look at Japanese cars for reliability, not power. And so far, I have not seen any Japanese car rust after 1990. Don't forget that Dodge had paint problems in the past. An old friend of mine has an old Dodge van from the 80's. The paint flakes off and rust under the paint.

And cheap?

Look at the new Chevy Aveo. It's below 10K. I've never seen a Japanese that cheap.

20th Feb 2004, 09:22

Go to www.google.com. Type in "Toyota Engine Sludge". Check out the links. This is a big problem that Toyota is trying to downplay. They even have an extended warranty for 8 years unlimited miles that sounds good on paper, but you will find accounts all over the net where people are being denied warranty coverage for this problem.

22nd Feb 2004, 12:03

I'm very aware of the sludge problems and I cannot support Toyota to that extent. Toyota obviously screwed up when it came to that point. But OVERALL, Toyota has always been famous for it's reliability. Even though the sludge problem doesn't prove it.

2nd Mar 2004, 11:01

Toyota quality has declined. They are still riding the coattails of the past reputation, of being invincible. But now you have engines that sludge (excuse me, but engine failure is a SIGNIFICANT problem and overshadows power window failures, AC problems and other nuisances), transmissions failing, brake problems, and even the minor annoyances formerly attributed to only American made cars. The new 2004 Sienna has already had a recall on the gas tank. It used to be Made in America was the seal of quality and then our quality declined, then Made in Japan developed the same sense of infallibility that used to be held by Americans, and now that quality is declining. DO NOT BUY Toyota because you think you are getting something better than American. You will be buying it for all the wrong reason.

10th May 2009, 22:40

Hahahaha, if only this guy knew in 2002 what would happen to the big three American car company 6-7 years later! Almost down the drain, Chrysler is almost bankrupt. My family bought American cars but all of them were a let down. Constantly having some issues, which cost money, mind you these were bought new and have average miles! Tired of all the unreliability, we tried a "USED" Toyota Previa minivan and WOW! This van is super reliable, it got 247,000 miles on her and still starts and drive like brand new!!! Nothing like any of the American cars, even brand new, this Toyota hands down has the most unbreakable engine and transmission in any vehicle we've had!!

13th Jul 2014, 01:48

The majority of reviews online about this van are excellent. Oil burning problems early on are more of an indication of poor maintenance and driving habits than any fault of the manufacturer. Dodge has its share of problems in all years of its minivans.

15th Jul 2014, 14:49

Before being so general on the big three, buy a full size SUV or extended full size pickup from Ford or GM. Or a new Corvette, and let's hear any gripes afterwards. I haven't had QC issues as I did with my import models purchased new.